Senna-versus-Schumacher

Senna versus Schumacher
aids, using his 1992 Christmas card to FIA President Max Mosley to lobby for a ban on them. But
he had also warned the authorities that banning them, without simultaneously curtailing the
speed of the cars, would lead to “a season with a lot of accidents”. He had voiced his concerns to,
of all people, his former rival Alain Prost, calling him multiple times over the winter period, even
going as far as asking Prost to be president of the drivers’ association.
Senna was proven right. In testing at Silverstone, J.J. Lehto, in his first test for the Benetton-
Ford team, crashed to such an extent that he had to be removed from the car, unconscious, and
taken to a hospital where he was shown to have a fractured vertebra in his neck. After the
opening grand prix in Brazil, while testing at the Mugello circuit, Jean Alesi hurt his back after
crashing his Ferrari.
At the third race, all hell broke loose. From the start of the weekend, there was an unpleasant
atmosphere in the San Marino Grand Prix paddock. Despite all electronic driver aids having been
banned prior to the season, there were suspicions that the Benetton team were still using them.
The FIA were obviously having trouble policing. It was a burden on Senna’s shoulders and it only
added to his difficulties of settling into his new team and adapting to the Williams-Renault car.
Never mind the uneasy start to the season he had experienced.
In Friday qualifying, Jordan-Hart’s Rubens Barrichello violently crashed at the Variante Bassa
chicane, it was launched into the air across the kerbs, clearing the tyre barrier at the opposite
side, brutally striking the debris fences. The car rolled, smashing Barrichello’s head onto the
steering wheel and cockpit sides, and knocking him unconscious. When the car finally landed,
upside down, Barrichello was about to swallow his tongue. Quick intervention by the medical
team, under the experienced guidance of Professor Sid Watkins, saved the Brazilian’s life.
When Senna heard about the crash and that it concerned his protégé, he hurried to the
medical centre. But as soon as Barrichello regained consciousness, Senna left him to the care of
his good friend, professor Watkins. That evening, at his hotel, Senna dined with several friends
and colleagues, among which his brother, Leonardo, and his manager, Julian Jakobi, speaking
with them for a long time about the meaning and consequence of chance, about good luck and
bad luck. And he mentioned launching safety plans prior to the next Grand Prix. Little did Senna
know that the worst was yet to come.
Some twenty minutes into in Saturday’s second qualifying session, Roland Ratzenberger
damaged the front wing of his Simtek-Ford, a lap later lost the wing altogether on the straight
towards Curva Villeneuve, and smashed virtually head-on into the concrete wall at Villeneuve
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